If You Love Something
by PhoenixWormwood137
Summary: Phineas is trying to cope with his new disability, but it isn't easy. A lot of things have changed. Does Isabella feel the same way about him as she did before? What is Ferb's take on everything? Sequel to Let It Go, but can be read alone.
1. Chapter 1

**Hey, everyone! Thanks for clicking this story!**

**I got some requests for a sequel to my story "Let it Go", so here you go! ****If you're new to my stories, you can also read this without reading "Let it Go", I think figuring out what happened is pretty easy once we're a couple paragraphs in. Or even once you read past the disclaimer.**

**Said disclaimer: I don't have any right to any of these characters. I know the opening scene has been done at least twice before – I hope it's not too old, and I don't have any claim over it. Nor am I trying to steal it. ****I have never been blind, or known anyone who is blind, so can I ask you to forgive me in advance if I make mistakes?**

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><p>If You Love Something<p>

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It wasn't the screaming that woke Ferb up, though that certainly helped. It was his own nightmare – growing worse and worse, as he struggled down the hallways of a haunting dreamland – and the cries, the cries of the lost little boy, the boy who had been depending on him…

When his eyes opened, he was surprised to hear the screaming still splitting his ears. "Phineas!" he called into the shadowed room.

"Ferb!" came the answer. His brother's voice was quivering. "Am I still dreaming? Am I still asleep? What's going on?"

"Shhh – you're awake."

Phineas started crying.

Ferb took a deep breath. His instinct was to go over and comfort his brother - but Phineas needed to learn to get through a night by himself.

_It's just a night terror, _Ferb reminded himself, trying to keep calm. _ It's a common condition - no one remembers them in the morning –_

Phineas started whimpering, pulling the blankets up around his head, pure fear radiating from his scrawny body. "Help me, Ferb," he whispered, and his voice was husky and desperate.

"It's okay," Ferb whispered.

"Ferb! Help!"

"I'm coming," he said, tears pricking his eyes, trying to hold out just a second longer, for his brother's own good –

"_Ferb, where are you_?"

Ferb sprang out of bed and threw his arms around Phineas, hugging him and trying to tell him without words that he was safe. Then he remembered that Phineas had no real way of knowing who the person holding him was, and spoke. "I'm here…"

Phineas' tense muscles relaxed against Ferb, and Ferb sighed.

_Oh, gosh, it's not a night terror – if it was, he wouldn't recognize me._

"Isabella," Phineas said. One word, but it conveyed so much.

"Shhh," Ferb said, and then used a phrase that sprang up too often in their conversations. "_Let it go_. Just go to sleep. She still loves you."

"No – how do you know?"

"Shhh…"

"Tomorrow –"

"Yes, tomorrow. Let tomorrow be tomorrow. Don't worry about it tonight."

Phineas laid his head on Ferb's shoulder like a small child. "Okay. But you know I wouldn't listen if it wasn't you."

A wave of acid guilt erupted in Ferb's chest. His brother was completely awake, if he was forming coherent, touching thoughts like that. How long had Phineas been screaming before his helper had come? Stuck in a half-world, convinced he was living a nightmare because he couldn't tell the dark dreams apart from the moonlit room?

"I'm here," Ferb said. "Don't you worry. It'll always be me."

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><p><strong>It's short, I know - sorry. More is coming! :D Things will become clearer (I hope!)<strong>

**What do you think?**


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: My formatting is completely messed up - the site just isn't working for me! It's REALLY annoying. So that's why I don't have proper breaks and my author's note isn't in bold. Sorry. Also, sorry this is late in coming. And it's not really that good - just Phinbella, and I have more for this story than just Phinbella - anyhoo, this is probably the penultimate (second to last) chapter here. It's short. The next one should be longer. o000o

"Do I look okay?" Phineas asked, running a hand through his hair.

Ferb nodded, sighed, and resorted to speaking. "Yes."

He didn't mention the dark, bruise-like circles under Phineas' eyes, testament to all the sleepless nights, but instead sat his brother down without another word, and left Phineas waiting nervously in the dark.

He opened the front door, and found Phineas' pretty Mexican-Jewish girlfriend standing in the snow. "See ya, Ferb," she said.

"Yes… goodbye… and good luck," he replied.

He watched her go down the hall – watched her sit across from Phineas – watched her take his hand and greet him. "Why are you acting so nervous?" she asked. "It's not like this is the first time we've met up since… you know."

"It's the first time I've been in the house alone."

"You're not alone," she laughed.

"Alone besides you. Plus, it's the first time it's been – just us."

Ferb shut the door.

o000o

Phineas winced at the sharp sound, and Isabella squeezed his hand. "What's wrong?" she asked.

"Nothing. Ferb's just been a bit edgy today. Well – he's been edgy for a while, you know…"

"What do you mean?"

Phineas was quiet for a long time, still as stone, unseeing eyes staring off into the distance. Isabella was about to get up and make him a cup of coffee to cheer him up, and simply to have something to do instead of sitting awkwardly in the silence, when he spoke. There was a hint of a tremor in his voice.

"It's my fault," he said. "Ferb's just not happy, and, well, honestly…" he put his face in his hands. "Who can blame him? I can't … I mean…" he trailed off.

Isabella looked at him for a few minutes, just looked, searching his face. "I'm _sure_ whatever's got Ferb annoyed has nothing to do with you," she said, then got up and made a pot of coffee, handing her boyfriend a steaming mug.

"I don't know," he said. "Ferb's got a lot of reason to be angry with me."

"No he doesn't," Isabella snapped. "Trust me. I know why he's mad and it's not your fault."

"Why is he mad?"

"None of your business."

"Izzy… he's been down in the dumps ever since the accident. Of course it's my fault. I should have been more careful, I don't know what I was thinking, and now I've ruined his summers and pretty much his life. He hates taking care –"

"Don't," Isabella said. "Don't. He loves you, don't forget that. Please don't let yourself think like this. You don't know what you're saying."

He was quiet. Isabella watched him, and made a desperate attempt to crack the ice. "You're lying," she said. "Not just to me, it doesn't matter, but to yourself as well. That's what a fool does. You don't strike me as a fool, Harry Potter."

Phineas barely smiled.

"We saw that movie last date, remember?" she put down her coffee and leaned toward him. "Cheer up. We'll find other things to do, the movies are overrated. We can still go out, same as always."

"You don't have to, you know," he said hollowly. "It's okay. Find yourself a nice, handsome boyfriend who can treat you like you should be treated, get married to someone who can actually see you… I don't deserve you anymore. Not that I ever did."

"Oh, Phineas!" Isabella ran to him and put her arms around him. "Don't you dare say that."

"It's true, though," he said, and there were definitely tears in his voice now.

"No! No, Phineas, do you think your worth as a person or a boyfriend depends on how well you can see? It doesn't have anything to do with that!"

He just sighed into her shoulder.

"Phineas," she pleaded, and held him closer. "I love you, that hasn't changed!"

He was crying, and she was crying, and then, in the mess of tears and smeared mascara and long, black hair coming loose from its bun, her mouth found his…


	3. Chapter 3

**Sorry for short chapter again :)**

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><p>Ferb sat in his car outside, staring out at the grey sky. He couldn't bring himself to turn the keys in the ignition – but he couldn't make himself get out again, either.<p>

He flipped open his cellphone, staring at the contacts list, running his thumb absentmindedly down till he came to the bottom, the last name. Vanessa Doofenshmirtz.

"Oh, darn it, I've got to talk," he said, resting his forehead against the steering wheel. "Talk to Izzy."

A red station wagon pulled into the driveway beside Ferb, and he watched his mother get out, unload some groceries, and open the door to the house.

A second later, she came out again, surprise, happiness, and embarrassment rubbed all over her face.

Ferb rolled down one of his car windows. "What's going on?" he called.

Linda approached Ferb, smiling, flushed. "Your brother and Isabella are – well -"

"Kissing, right?" Ferb sighed, and shut his cell phone with unnecessary force.

"What's wrong?" Linda took the phone and opened it again. "Vanessa?" she asked. "Are you going to apologize to her?"

Ferb swallowed. "Perhaps. I still don't see what I did wrong."

"Okay," Linda said. "I guess it's up to you."

She left.

Ferb put his feet up on the car dashboard, waiting for Isabella to come out of the house.

She soon did, face flushed, eyes bright.

She started walking down the driveway, but Ferb stopped her with a hand on his arm.

"Come with me?" he asked.

"Where are you going?"

"I need to talk to you," he said.

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><p>The path was frosty, and frozen leaves crunched beneath Ferb and Isabella's feet as they went through an ice-glazed field, walking in silence.<p>

Ferb stopped and turned to face Isabella.

"There's something I've wanted to say for a long time," he confessed.

"Okay," Isabella said, swaying awkwardly from side to side in the biting winter cold. "What is it?"

He gave her a sad smile, then leaned down and pressed his cold lips briefly against her cheek.

Isabella was tense under his touch, and when, suddenly, the tickle moved, swept across and touched her mouth, she jumped back as if electrically shocked.

"Oh, heavens, Isa," Ferb said. "I'm so sorry. I really didn't mean to."

"What did you want to tell me?" she said, her voice strained.

He closed his eyes, and took a deep breath of the searing cold air.

"I love you."

"Yeah..."

"You knew, already, didn't you?"

Isabella looked uncomfortable. "Yeah."

"You don't return the feeling." It was a statement.

"I – I'm sorry, Ferb."

They started walking again, Ferb kicking the dead winter leaves instead of stepping on them, hands in his pockets.

"That's alright," he said. "Phineas would be devastated. And he needs you. A brother is a brother, but when it comes to cheering up, support – well, no one could be better than you."

He stopped and laughed, his breath smoky in the sub-zero air. "He loves you, you know," he said. "A lot. Almost as much as I do."

"What, you're just going to let it go like that?" Isabella said, turning to the boy beside her.

Ferb shrugged, blinking back tears and still smiling. "They say, if you love something…"

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><p><strong>And that's it, folks! I know - it was short. Sorry. But... it's sort of just how it turned out. Hope this chapter wasn't TOO bad - I felt like it was rushed - was it? Thanks for reading :)<strong>


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